A Little Neglected . . .

So I feel as if I have been neglecting my poor blog . . .
Probably because I have been.
Life has been so freakishly busy and hectic and utterly chaotic that I feel as though everything has exploded in my face! And it’s only going to get worse.
I should really be making cat food right now . . . but I’m writing this. Even my spelling is suffering at the hands of my eye-twitch induced exhaustion! But we writers do as we must – carrying on the spark of literary genius!
And back to reality.
Finances have been killing me and I quite literally had a panic attack over it last week – thankfully talking to my mom and problem solving helped me feel better combined with the oh-so-lovely fact that my income tax return check came in and presto! Dire financial straights crisis averted!
I also haven’t spent near enough time packing, but on the same hand I’m no where near ready to move yet (a month and a half away) that I feel that packing would be premature. At least, any more than I already have (one bookshelf down – that’s about 5 boxes? – 3 more to go!).
Added to the mix (although this I have thoroughly enjoyed even if it is time consuming and about to be somewhat heartbreaking) is the raising of two bottle babies (kittens). Although they are now seven weeks old and ready for their forever homes (heartbreaking part) so that part of everything is about to change.
And now getting the new backyard ready for Motley – the yard full of foxtails and black locust trees. It’s going to be an adventure.
Scratch that – It’s going to be WAR!

And update on my stomach issue and weight loss:
I – and I would really like to stress that word “I” here – figured out what was causing my stomach issues. I even mentioned it to the doctor the first time I went in, just because I did see it as a remote possibility at the time. My birth control meds, or, as I like to call them: My happy drugs. I have switched birth controls and am no longer having those stomach issues. YAY me! BOO doctors!
I have lost 22 pounds so far, and I am back into my high school jeans – Super YAY me!

Good night all!

Mystery Meat . . . and Various other assorted refrigerator nightmares

There is nothing more horrifying and completely tragic than food that grows its own friends.

A week or so ago I found myself with both the time and ambition to clean my kitchen – including cleaning out my refrigerator of old/spoiled food. Unfortunately, time got away from me and while I got the old food out of the fridge, it sat on the counter until I was ready to deal with it.

I would like to state here that yes, I know that food on the counter should be dealt with immediately. But this anecdote is just a reaffirmation of that common sense knowledge.

Unfortunately, last night was the night that I was ready to deal with it. Of course, knowing that the food was bad, meant that the trash had to also be dealt with immediately.

So I emptied out the containers of bad food, and low and behold! One of them contained now rancid meat. Let me tell you, if you didn’t know or cannot imagine, rancid meat is the most awful smell that will ever encounter your nasal passages. Thankfully it was in a stainless steel bowl, so the container wasn’t a loss, unlike one of the other containers I had. The majority of the scented candles in my possession made their way to the kitchen to be lit and permeate the air following the saturation of my apartment by the smell of the gross meat (ok – so it wasn’t that bad, it didn’t get throughout my apartment). Trash was taken out while the dishes soaked in hot water. Then the sink was filled with detergent and hot water, and the dishes left to soak overnight. The oh-so-lucky container that held the meat was also covered with regular dish soap to help breakdown the stuck on portions of horridness that would not come off with the regular scrub brush.

This morning, all dishes left to soak came through the ordeal unscathed.

On a more positive note: I am currently bottle raising some kittens (and getting paid to do it!) and I took some pictures of them this morning. The first photo is of "Rapha" and the second is of "Rani"

Allergies Anyone?

This past week has not been the greatest of weeks, as far as great weeks go.

My boss’ mother passed away – she was 102 years old. She had just, in fact, turned 102 last week and then the following day became ill. She passed on Thursday morning.

My brother-in-law’s grandmother also passed away yesterday early afternoon. She had been battling illnesses and deteriorating health for awhile, but just became severely ill a couple weeks ago.

And just this week I received the news that an old friend (one of my sister’s bridesmaids at her wedding) has stage four brain cancer and may only have days or weeks to live – she has three kids: ages 6,4, and 18months. And a husband who adores her. She is 28.

Our own mortality hits us in very different ways.

And life moves on.

Today I went to an Herbalife STS (I just found out what that means! Its Herbalife speak for Success Training Seminar!), and I have to say I am very excited. Maybe that needed an exclamation! Or two!! Maybe even three!!! Anyways, I am going to get really plugged into the business! That means I will be talking to all of you about it as well! Even more than I have been!

Before Herbalife I was tired all of the time, had no energy, weight-wise was not where I wanted to be, and had an undiagnosed GI issue that left me horribly nauseous two out of every four weeks and the doctors were convinced that taking my gallbladder would somehow make all of it go away (yeah right!). Now I have energy and don’t feel the need for a nap at lunch nor do I want to go back to using my caffeine crutch; I’m losing weight healthily, and since I started on this product about 2 ½ weeks ago I have only had one day of not feeling well!

Also, I had bad allergies that manifested themselves not only in my sinuses but on my skin! I broke out into these horrible rashes that itched like nobody’s business and I have some scars to prove it! Now I am off of my allergy medicine, and guess what? No more rashes! My sister was very impressed by this as she has seen some of my skin rashes and knows how horribly frustrating they were.

I am also going to be implementing on here one of the things that Brook Kirwin talked about today:

3 things I am grateful for: I am grateful for Dustin, who simply walked into my work one day and asked if I liked shakes. I am grateful for the product, which seems to be currently changing my life. And I am grateful for my family – the whole lot who mean so much to me and whom I love very much!
3 things I am manifesting: I will be healthy and feel good all of the time, even when I don’t want to! I will reach financial fitness and freedom. And I will finish my novel!
One amazing thing that happened to me today is: that my work schedule for next week was absolutely perfect and what I needed it to be – that never happens!

God Bless!

Busy, busy!

Sorry! I know I said I would be updating so much more often then I have been, but I’ve been super busy.

Lots going on.

I finally made it to the library and checked out some books – research for my novel. Now I just have to find the time to read them. I also recently joined/signed up with the company Herbalife, which is super yum and doing good things for me so far. I’ve lost a total of 5 pounds now, maybe a little more as I haven’t gotten on the scale in a couple of days and I joined a weight loss challenge that ends on the 17th – I’ll let you know how that goes!

Last weekend I had a very busy Saturday. First I went to a plasma center and signed up to donate. Then I went to an Herbalife training meeting, just an overview of the products and what they do. Then I had a wedding to attend (probably the fastest wedding I’d ever been to!), went to the reception, then I went back to the plasma center and actually donated – and I’m going back again tomorrow!

This weekend will be busy too, as I am going to an Herbalife training seminar – I guess its going to be an all day thing as far as I know, and it starts at 9am. For those of you who know me very well, you know that 9am is waaaaaaaayyy to early for me. I prefer to sleep in!

I haven’t been doing very well on exercising in the past week, but prior to that I was doing excellently. And I’m still eating right and drinking plenty of water. Yay!

Money is tight right now (then again when is it not!) and so I’m really having to watch things at the moment. But with me donating plasma and doing some dog sitting next weekend, funds should be coming in a little more easily.

The cats are all doing well – although they seem to be having slightly more frequent arguments. And Hops is doing awesome, but she has chewed off a couple of the buttons on my remotes!

Yawn – time for bed!

Common Sense Award?

It’s always sad when you have to force yourself to blog.

And as I’m writing this, Hops has here jingle bell ball in her mouth and is tossing her head back and forth – making lots of noise and is super cute, so now I’m in a bit better of a mood.

Worked out this evening for about 45 minutes. Yesterday I didn’t work out at all (wasn’t feeling up to it) and my water intake wasn’t up to my goal, but close! Meals were well balanced as they ought to be!

Hmmm, life. Well I took my car into the shop as my brakes “weren’t right” as I like to say. It ended up being more than what I thought the problem was (although they took care of that as well), but the monetary damage wasn’t bad at all (at least, that’s how I feel)!

And I have the first $100 into my Emergency Fund saved! Gooooooooooo ME! I’m hoping to have all of it by the end of May - only because taxes are coming up and I have a plane ticket to buy and a bunny to spay (I haven’t told her yet that I am taking her ovaries – its for her own good!). I keep wondering if maybe Hops wouldn’t benefit from a bunny friend as the cats and her just don’t speak the same language and things seemed to be getting lost in translation (not referring to ‘murder’ here – and that is a Bones reference, lol).

I have also discovered that feeding Holly three times a day seems to work best. I have a bad feeling that she may be trying to go hyperthyroid me but I am going to fight it tooth and nail. And I think I am starting to come to terms that I may have accidently gotten myself another cat in her – but I am still calling her a foster. Its just that she is old and I don’t think anybody is going to come along and baby her the way she deserves. Poor girl had a great life with a good owner who happened to have horrid helpers that pawned off their responsibilities and so dumped her onto the next owners – who were obviously not cat people! But at least they brought her to us – good for them! Common Sense award to them!

I think I should start doing that: handing out Common Sense Awards.

I wonder how often I’ll have the opportunity? In this town . . .

Well, the natives are getting restless so I had better go now before a war ensues . . . Good night all!

Blah!

Day 7 – worked out for a full hour! And I drank a good amount of water and my meals weren’t horrible. Turns out yesterday and today were false alarms which probably means that early tomorrow morning before going into work I’m going to feel like I’ve been hit by a Semi – and there will be no way out as my car is going into the shop first thing in the morning to get more break fluid put into it. Which is something I could probably do myself if I knew where and what kind of break fluid to get – as long as the lines don’t need bled or anything. Super frustrating!

But on a good note – I believe I have officially lost a pound and at least a half an inch around my waist! Woot woot!

Ooops!

I know its been a few days since I’ve reported but work and life have been killing me! So here it is:

Days 3-6

So day 3, I just did some major stretching due to the exercise set I’d done the night before, but otherwise I did well.

Day 4 was a nightmare. I worked a straight 12 hour shift – no lunch break. Three of our staff called in sick that day, we had a completely full surgery schedule that got complicated by a dog that had a bunch of stickers caught in it mouth (due to idiot owners!) and a dystocia dog who had been in labor for about 36 hours per the owners (another pair of idiots). So lunch was filled with finishing up our surgeries from the morning, digging stickers out of a dogs mouth, and performing a c-section/spay. Luckily four of the five puppies survived – the one who didn’t was the one that got stuck in the birth canal. We called in pizza for lunch – I had Mt. Dew for the first time in a very, very long time. When I got home that night I downloaded some soundscapes and walked for about 30 minutes. I had comfort food for dinner that ended up not sitting very well. I did not drink anywhere near my goal amount of water.

Day 5 still not all that great. Drank water with lunch and dinner, but only drank maybe an additional 8-12 ounces throughout the day. I did some very light amount of stretching, but that’s it.

Day 6 I drank water with all three meals, but no extra, and no exercise. It’s just that time, so I was kind of expecting it to not be a great day. But I did eat pretty well today so that’s good!

I will do better this next week!

Feel the Burn!

DAY 2

Ouch . . .

So I worked out pretty good this evening – I moved onto a new segment in the workout videos that I have, and let me tell ya: I am sooooo feeling it already!

I’m unsure if I will be capable of walking or moving my arms in the morning . . . Oh well, I’ll flop out of bed.

But on a more positive note, I managed to drink water with both lunch and dinner (running a little late this morning so none with breakfast) and drank my entire 32oz bottle of water: Hooray for me! I backslid slightly on my coffee consumption, but still kept my milk drinking under control. And I am learning once again that salad is my friend.

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like celery? I mean, come on, who really likes celery? But I forced myself to eat some today. I did one of those peanut butter on celery things and I tried a stick with some ranch dressing just to see which I preferred. If you concentrate really hard on the taste other than celery, you almost – almost – can trick yourself into believing its not really celery.

I guess Hops may be getting to try a new green tomorrow.

Fun story of the week –

I’ve been having problems with my heater ever since I came back from California. The heater would work properly for awhile, and then randomly shut itself off only to not kick back on again at the appointed temperature (made for some very chilly mornings!), causing me to have to do any number of things to get it to turn back on. It eventually got progressively worse and so I called maintenance to come take a look. They did, and fiddled with some things, telling me that if what they did didn’t work to call them back out there. It seemed to work – for all of 8 hours. Unfortunately I worked all day the next couple of days and this past weekend so I did not have time for them to come out and try again. I called Monday morning though and they came out Monday afternoon and just replaced the wall unit. That seemed to work very well – until sometime in the middle of the night when the heater decided that it liked being on thank-you-very-much and was not going to turn off even though it was 86 degrees in my apartment at 5 o’clock in the morning! It would not even turn off when I kicked it over to AC!!!!! But that was this morning – I tried to give the thing the benefit of the doubt, but alas! It was not to be. When I got home at lunch, my apartment had cooled down (all to a nice, balmy 80 degrees) and once again when I just turned the unit to ‘off’ it just kept pumping out hot air – so I called maintenance again to have them come over. Unfortunately, they ended up calling me back to let me know that they were in the middle of a rather time consuming job and would not be able to get to my apartment before I left for work again. So I could either postpone until tomorrow, or have them come while I was not there.
Have I mentioned that technically speaking I have too many animals in my apartment? I thought so.
But I went ahead and gave the okay. Because there is no way I could have done anything in my apartment this evening the way it was. And I came home to work with my apartment at a bracing 66 degrees! Oh well – at least the heater turned off!

1 of 1

Today I have done very well. I exercised for 35 minutes, drank a glass of water with each meal, and cut back significantly on both milk and coffee! I didn’t get my full extra 32oz of water, but my meals were better balanced than they have been for a while.

I had to run some errands today, and since today was Valentine’s Day there were many guys out at Walmart buying last minute flowers. Walmart has lots of last minute flowers! I even got some cheap ones that are sitting pretty on my coffee table – I just have to keep Hops and Wicket from chewing on them!

I have also discovered that Hops prefers to drink from my water fountain and the cats water bowl rather than her water bottle. It’s very cute - after she has drank out of the fountain, she sneezes – the fountain is not very conducive to being drank out of by a bunny!

Accountability

I have decided that I am actually going to do it. It’s a daunting task, but it has to be done. And, I believe, I will feel so much better for having done it.

Losing weight, that is.

I keep starting to try and then this stupid stomach issue rears its ugly head, leading to a week or two of me just trying to function and keep everything going. This of course, brings about lots of stress causing my body to keep as much stored up as possible leaving me sitting right where I was at the beginning. And thus, I have to start all over again.

So that is what I am doing – starting all over again.

But this time, I’m telling everyone. Nag me please – send me emails, texts, call me and ask: have you been good today?

The past three days I have exercised okay (20mins) – my goal for this week is 30 minutes a day and drinking an 8oz glass of water at every meal, and 32oz on top of that. And starting to cut back on both coffee and milk.

I can already hear the drum beats of a death march in the back of my head. NOOOOOO! Not my milk and coffee!!!!!!!!

But I comfort myself in that it will only be for a little while, then I can go back a little bit once I attain my goals. But I already gave up caffeine and soda, and I don’t really feel their lack in my life – so who knows? Then again, I’ve never been a big fan of drinking water . . .

But this is about accountability. And I have to be honest.

So, my first goal is to get back to my high school graduation weight: that’s 20 pounds to lose. And I am going to succeed!

Novel Changes

I had one of those mornings. You know the ones. Where everything just doesn't really go your way.
Woke up late - really late as I had planned to get to work early today to make up for the fact that I woke up late the previous morning (like half an hour after my shift at work already started and was an hour and a half late to work on that day!) but I would still be able to make it work on time. Took a super fast shower and discovered that I had broken out into a rash all over my body - lovely! And its not like I feel comfortable taking benadryl; just ask my sister about the last time I took that stuff - what a trip! I absolutely had to run to the bank this morning a deposit my paycheck so I made toast for breakfast and after I had eaten that I went to put the toaster away, completely forgetting the fact that it was still hot and I burned my thumb and forefinger (they are both still a little tingly even now - 7 hours after the fact).
So just not a good morning.
Thankfully, I made it to the bank and managed to grab something for lunch and made it to work on time. AND work went smoothly.
The day wasn't a total loss.
But I recently decided that I am going to finish this book I am writing - even if it kills me (which it just might . . .)! I'm getting some feedback from a friend of mine (Yay!) as my lovely and wonderful older sister refuses to read anymore of it until I'm all done (*sniffles*). Which means me and the library are going to become very close friends for the next however long it takes!
I am also going to start working out as I really need to get to a healthier disposition, which makes me extremely glad that I have a book stand on my treadmill - I can read and run at the same time!
On another note - I have a new foster: an old white fluffy cat named "Holly". She was surrendered to my clinic shortly before Christmas. She was left at someone's house when the previous owner moved. What I and the other staff members think happened is that when the old owner moved (to an assisted living facility), the family members probably all told her that they would take care of her and whatnot - but didn't and just left her there to be the new owners problem. The new owners thought that she was sick and so they called their parents, not knowing what to do. Those parents were clients of ours and so they arranged to bring her to us to be euthanized (thinking that she was very ill). When the Dad went and picked her up he was suprised to see that other than some ocular discharge she seemed fine, but brought her to us to see what to do for and with her as he nor his kids could keep her. Dr. Key agreed to take her in and see if we couldn't place her with the Humane Society, and our client went ahead and paid for all of her vaccinations and such. She is a very healthy cat (rather rotund, actually) and other than some skin tags, dry eyes, and slight arthritis, she's all good. And what a purr box!
Also, I have a bunny. I think it's a girl (hard to tell when they are this young) and should she really be a "she" bunny then her name will officially be "Miss Dawning Hops" or "Hops" for short. She is very rambunctious and already well litterbox trained!
I have a full house!